


Survival

by Anko_Murasaki



Category: Halo (Video Games) & Related Fandoms
Genre: Action, Bonding, Feelings, Grief/Mourning, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, but I haven't decided with whom yet, m/m lemon involving Six in future chapters!, male Noble Six, yes finally
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-09
Updated: 2020-03-18
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:27:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23014738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anko_Murasaki/pseuds/Anko_Murasaki
Summary: Noble Four and Noble Six survive Reach and try to go home in one piece.
Relationships: Other Relationship Tags to Be Added
Comments: 2
Kudos: 24





	1. The Escape

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys!  
> This is my first fanfic in the Halo Universe and my second one ever! I hope you'll like it! But please be lenient on me as english is not my main language. If you notice any mistake please do tell me! Constructive criticism is always welcome!

AUGUST 30, 2552 – REACH

He was running.  
He was running like he had never ran before. He could see the platform. Just a few more meters and he would finally reach it. His package was weighing heavily in the small of his back. Not because of it’s mass, no, but because of what it was representing: hope of a better future, a future in which humanity survives the adversity of the Covenant, hope for all these lives that could be saved. But not only. For Noble Six, it was far more important than that. For Noble Six, it was also bearing the weight of all the lives sacrificed in order to protect it, to protect _him_. Some people would say it’s too heavy for one person to carry. But that was not the case of Noble Six. He would carry out his mission, no matter what.  
Finally, he reached the platform where a Pelican was waiting. Captain Keyes as well as a few marines were inside. The Captain descended from the Pelican and approached Six.

“Good to see you, Spartan. Halsey assured me I could count on you.” the Pillar of Autumn’s Captain said while examining the package.

“Not just me, sir.”

Six couldn’t help it, he had to say something. He knew the mission was all it mattered in the mind of officers, his past working as an assassin for the ONI was proof enough of that, and it was all it mattered for him too for most of his life. But his time as a Noble team member had made him see that other things mattered too. He had made friends with his teammates, something he hadn’t had since a very long time, and their loss was affecting him more than he was willing to admit. He couldn’t bear the idea of his friends being forgotten after all the sacrifices they had made.

“They’ll be remembered.” Keyes assured him with a meant to be reassuring squeeze on Six’s right elbow, but the Spartan was not really convinced.

Suddenly, before they could hop on the Pelican, they noticed a Covenant cruiser going in their direction accompanied by smaller vessels. Seems like they wouldn’t be able to leave the planet without one more fight, and a big one for that matter.

“Cruiser!” the Captain exclaimed. “Adjusting heading for the Autumn. Noble Four I need fire on that cruiser or we’re not getting out of here! Do you copy?”

 _“You’ll have your window, sir.”_ Emile answered on the radio from the commands of the mass driver.

“Bridge, this is the Captain. We have the Package. Returning to the Autumn. Over.”

_“Copy that.”_

At this moment, a Phantom appeared and shot another Pelican, which started to spin dangerously and fall toward the platform. Noble Six, seeing the threat approaching, jumped just in time to avoid the explosion of the crash. While he was trying to recover and stand up, the Phantom dropped off Covenant near the Onager mass driver.  
Worry pinged Spartan-B312’s chest: Emile was still there commanding the canon. He would be taken by surprise by the Covenant coming from behind and would be in difficulty. Six had to do something, and quick!

‘I can’t loose another teammate! Not again!’ he thought desperately.

He tried to shoot at the Phantom while still on one knee but an alien still on the spacecraft prevented him to do so by shooting at him in return, pinning him down. Six swore in his head, he couldn’t afford to be held there: Four needed him! Not that Spartan-A239 was incompetent, far from it, but after all that Six had lost, he wasn’t willing to take any risk. Too many good soldiers had died on that planet and no amount of talent could keep you alive indefinitely when you were faced by hordes of Covenant.  
A change of plan was in order.  
He started running at lightning speed toward Noble Four’s location, adrenaline filling his body. Sounds of fighting could be heard from the platform Noble Four was on. Six recognized the characteristic sound of Emile’s M45 Tactical Shotgun. Good. It meant he was still alive, even if Six hadn’t been there in time to prevent him from being ambushed.

‘I hope I’m not too late!’ Noble Six thought.

The sound of an armored body hitting the platform could be heard, possibly Emile’s.

“Shit!” he cussed.

Six flew over the last steps of the stairs and arrived just in time to see Emile shoot an Elite on the ground…

“WHO’S NEXT?” the skull-faced Spartan shouted defiantly.

…and another one approaching in his back, unknowingly to Noble team’s fourth member. B312 didn’t think twice and pounced: he took Emile’s kukri on his right shoulder pauldron and jabbed it in the Covenant’s neck, surprising both the alien, though he died quickly, and the other Spartan.

“What the… Six? What the fuck are you doing here? You should be on the Captain’s Pelican!” Noble Four exclaimed, dumbfounded.

“Well, I’m not.” Six observed, giving back his knife to Emile casually.

“Whatever.” he huffed. “We have to destroy that cruiser or the Pillar of Autumn will not be able to leave the planet. I’ll take the gun while you kill the Covenant on the ground. Agreed?”

Noble Six nodded in approval.

“Okay, let’s get to work then.”

At these words, Four took once again his place on the Onager and started to shoot at Phantoms nearby, as the cruiser was not attainable yet. At the same time, Six defended their position on the ground.

 _“Cruiser moving to position. I need it dead!”_ they heard Keyes say over the radio.

“Roger that, Captain.” Noble Four answered dutifully.

The cruiser’s dark shape could be seen approaching through the surrounding clouds. It was enormous. As it kept going closer and closer, Four noticed a luminous point on the ‘belly’ of the ship.

‘Probably its weak point.’ the Spartan thought.

It was still too far though. He would have to wait a bit more to be able to blow it. Until then, he would take down as many Covenant vessels as possible.  
While he executed himself, Six was battling against wave after wave of Covenant. Unggoys and Kig-Yars, in particular, seemed to never decrease in number. It came to a point where Six was asking himself if his actions had any impact at all. It was kind of a depressing thought.  
He was gunning down a Jackal when a Brute came out of nowhere and charged at him suddenly, tackling him on the ground. Recovering quickly from his surprise, he sent an uppercut on the side of the alien’s head, stunning him. The Spartan took the occasion to push the body off him and stand up, putting a bullet in its head to finish the job. If the situation had come to the point where he couldn’t even notice a Jiralhanae charging at him, it meant the situation was not as in control as they thought. They had to hurry or the mission would be compromised.

“Four, I will not be able to hold them off for much longer!” Six informed his teammate.

“Hang out, Six. Just a little more and it’ll be in my range.” the other Spartan said.

Indeed, they had to wait only ten seconds for the Covenant spaceship to finally be in range.

 _“Fire now Warrant Officer!”_ came the order.

Emile did as he was told and charged at its max the mass driver to take one final strike against the cruiser’s heart. The spacecraft took the blow right in its weak point and exploded violently, debris flying everywhere.

 _“Good guns, Spartans!”_ Keyes congratulated them. _“All stations brace for cast off.”_

Emile hopped off the Onager and turned to Six, still crossing blades with an Elite with a sword he had taken on a Sangheili’s corpse previously.

“Come on Six! We have to get out of here!”

Spartan-B312 glimpsed at Noble Four and nodded silently to show he had heard. With a surge of energy, he threw back the alien to destabilize him and then impale him in the stomach.

“Ready whenever you want, Four.”

“Good. I saw a potential shelter west from here. I suggest we move there to plan on what to do next.”

Six nodded.

“Okay, then. Let’s go.”

As the two Spartans began to make their way to the shelter, the Autumn’s engines started to roar to move the ship off the ground. It took time for the thrusters to gather enough energy to finally fly toward the sky but once they did, the spaceship flew off quickly into space, leaving behind its small thrusters, Reach and two of its best soldiers: Noble Six and Noble Four. A last transmission from the Pillar of Autumn came through the Spartans’ radios:

_“This is the Pillar of Autumn. We are away. And the Package is with us.”_

“Looks like they made it alive. No guarantee for how long it’ll last though.” Emile commented.

They kept running through Aszod, killing the Covenant in their way, and soon the Spartans arrived at the shelter Emile had noticed, a huge construction in which they would be able to loose their pursuers long enough to hide and think of a plan. They ran through the building’s entrance and slowed down a bit to decide which way to go: the building had many hallways and as much as it served their purpose, they didn’t want to get lost too.

“This way!” Emile called, pointing a hallway on the right.

They started running once again. When they judged they were far enough away from the entrance for the Covenant to take some time to find them, the Spartans entered one of the many rooms lining the corridor. It would be their hideout for the time being.

The first thing they noticed when they came through the door was the number of machines in the room. They were everywhere: on the ground, on the walls and even on the ceiling! Otherwise, the room was really dark and silent except for all the machines’ little lights and the motors’ purring. Noble Four made a whistle of admiration:

“Well, that’s amazing! I don’t know what’s the purpose of this place but it’ll serve our goal well enough.”

At these words, Spartan-A236 put down his shotgun against one of the machines lining the wall and crouched, Six doing the same a second later.

“Okay now. Time to think of an escape plan.” Emile said. “The Covenant will likely glass Reach soon. We need to be off the planet before then, so we’ll need a ship that can go in space. Something discreet so the Covenant won’t notice. I think we can both agree that the best way of not getting noticed is obviously by taking one of their spacecrafts, so we’ll have to find one. I think we’ll be safe enough, as long as they don’t try to make contact with us and expect us to answer, as personally I don’t speak a word of their language, whatever it’s called. I suppose you don’t know a word either?”

Six made a ‘no’ with his head.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Emile said wryly. “Anyway, once we’ll be in space we’ll have to jump somewhere they won’t be able to track us. Entering slipspace takes time though and is highly noticeable, their suspicions will rise when we’ll begin its process. It’s possible they’ll shoot at us before we’ve jumped completely. And in that case, well, there will be nothing we can do besides praying they don’t tear us apart before we’ve jumped entirely.” he explained, shrugging at the last sentence. “I know this part of the plan is one big gamble and it’s not something I would do usually, but circumstances being what they are, we have no other choice. But before worrying ourselves about that we have a more urgent problem: do you know how to pilot a Covenant spaceship? Because I don’t.”

“No. But I may be able to figure it out if I have enough time.”

“Okay, it’ll have to do.”

Noise could be heard coming from the hallway: the Covenant were getting closer. The Spartans stood up and took their weapons.

“We have to move. Our next goal is a hangar north from our position. I saw a Phantom landing there when we were battling our way here.”

Emile went to the door.

“I’m gonna check outside. Wait for my signal to come out.”

Six answered with a nod. Noble Four opened the door smoothly and looked around discreetly. The Covenant were still far away.

‘Seems like the way is clear.’

He made a sign to Noble Six to let him know the situation and opened the door fully to go in the corridor, followed by his partner. They made their way more deeply in the building, searching for an alternative exit. They obviously couldn’t go back where they had entered as there would be a great amount of Covenant milling about searching for them there.  
They tried to be as discreet as possible. It would only take one alien spotting them for a horde of Covenant to chase the Spartans after all, and they wanted to avoid that scenario at all costs. They kept walking along the corridor’s walls, stopping every now and then to hide in a room when they spotted Covenant in their area. There were one or two stressful moments when they had to flatten themselves against the wall and hold their breath while the aliens coming from a corridor perpendicular to theirs passed their way, but they succeeded in making their way to a fire exit leading outside the building without too much problems.  
When they finally arrived outside, they observed that there were not too much Covenant in the area. They were most likely still searching for them in the building.

“Come on.” Emile beckoned. “We need to hurry before these bloody Covenant start to glass the planet. The hangar is not far from here.”

They approached the hangar with caution and glanced at the interior.  
The building was made of two parts: one small and one big. The first one, the nearest, was apparently for the storage of various things, stacked against the right and left walls, resulting in the making of a narrow passage between the two piles. The second one, unlike the other, was far more lively: there were about fifty Covenant milling about in the hangar. But more importantly, there was an alien spaceship stationed next the right wall that was devoid of any surveillance.

“I believe we have found our target, Six.” Emile commented. “Okay, listen.” he started. “There are too many Covenant for us to just barge in there and kill them all. We need to act with discretion. What I suggest is to rob two Elites of their invisibility devices, and once in our possession, we use them to reach the spacecraft without being seen. Are you okay with this plan?”

B312 shook his head in agreement.

“Then, time to act! Let’s go.”

The two Spartans parted to hide between crates on the narrow passage’s both sides. Now they just had to wait for two Sangheilis to come their way. Thankfully, a first one appeared not too long after, seemingly patrolling the area. The alien passed them without seeing them. Emile took the opportunity to get behind the Elite, put his left arm around his neck and cut his throat, all in an instant. The Covenant hadn’t had time to react. The Spartan rummaged through the body’s armour in search of the invisibility device. Once he found the object, he brandished it in victory, pocketed it and dragged the corpse behind the crates.

Now it was Noble Six’s turn.  
His target arrived a few minutes later saying something in Sangheili. He seemed to be looking for something or someone.

‘Probably his missing comrade.’ the Spartan thought.

Soon, the alien came at their level, but instead of continuing further down the narrow passage, he stopped to look between the crates for his comrade. Of course, what he found was not what he expected: rather than his partner alive and well, he found his corpse and his two murderers. Without thinking, the Sangheili started to shout to alert his comrades in the other part of the hangar.

‘Shit!’ the two Spartans cursed in their heads.

Noble Six reacted quickly: he jumped on the Elite to pin him on the ground, hoping the shock would make him shut up before he alerted all the building of their presence. He then sliced the alien’s throat to shut him up for good. Afterward, he began to search for the invisibility device on the dead body.

“Hurry up, Six!” Noble Four whispered. “I think they’re coming to investigate!”

Indeed, the Covenant had heard the Elite’s cry and were starting to make their way toward their location.  
The aliens were coming dangerously close and Six still hadn’t found the device. That thing was well hidden! As they kept coming closer and closer, Six was becoming more and more frantic in his search.

“Six!” Emile hissed. “Have you found it yet?”

B312 was still rummaging through the dead body’s armor. As their enemies became almost able to see him, the Spartan finally found the device he was searching for and activated it, the two humans becoming invisible just in time to escape the Covenant's sight.  
Both Spartans sighed in relief: it was a close case, too close for their liking.  
The aliens entered the warehouse and found the cadaver in the middle. They emitted sounds of indignation at the discovery and started to search actively their surroundings for the offenders. The Spartans made good use of their invisibility as well as the darkness of the place to exit the area without being seen. Now in the hangar’s main area, they had to find a solution to reach the ship: they couldn’t just walk through the mass of Covenant, they would be spotted immediately. Fortunately, they noticed that huge pipes were going along the walls on both sides, big enough for the humans to walk on them. The soldiers climbed on them and started to carefully make their way to the spacecraft. Below, the Covenant were still searching for them:

“WHERE ARE THE INTRUDERS? I WANT THEM DEAD!” a Sangheili shouted.

His shouting was loud enough for all the hangar to hear, though it seemed it wasn’t loud enough to catch the ears of two Grunts on the side of the main area who were chatting about some random topic without a care in the world.

“But since I tell you I saw a ghost in the washroom!” one of them said exasperatedly.

“Nah, that’s bullshit.” the other one said for the umpteenth time.

“I saw it! I swear!” the first one insisted.

The other sighed:

“You’re sure it wasn’t just your reflect in the mirror?” he asked, unconvinced.

“Yes! Well… I don’t think so at least…”

“See? You’re not even sure of this fact! I can’t let you make me believe there’s a ghost in the toilets if you’re not even convinced of it yourself!”

“But-!”

“No but! I will not believe you until you give me a proof of what you advance! End of the conversation.” the Unggoy deadpanned.

“Okay, okay, I get it…” the other sighed with resignation.

Suddenly, a glimmer caught his eye.

“Hey, did you see that?”

“What? Don’t tell me you saw another one of your ‘ghosts’!”

“No! I swear I saw something on that pipe!”

“Really? Let’s see. Where?” his comrade said, turning to see what he was looking at.

“There!” the first one pointed.

“I don’t see anything. Maybe you were hallucinating…”

The shimmer happened again.

“There! Did you see it?”

“Yeah. It kinda looked like these invisibility devices the Elites are using… But what would be doing an Elite up there?” he asked. “Wait. Weren’t we supposed to be looking for intruders?”

“Intruders that mysteriously disappeared after killing two of us? Yeah, I do think so…” the second Unggoy said slowly, seemingly beginning to follow his friend’s reasoning.

“…”

“…”

“Fuck, we found them! Quick, raise the alarm!” the smart one said.

“ALERT!” his comrade yelled. “THE INTRUDERS ARE ESCAPING!”

“WHERE ARE THEY?” the Elite shouting previously asked, approaching the two small aliens.

“There! On that pipe!” the Grunt pointed, like he did before.

“ALL UNITS, KILL THE HUMANS!” the Elite ordered.

At these words, the aliens started to shoot at the two Spartans who didn’t understood a word of the conversation but grasped soon enough its meaning when a beam hit the wall right next to their heads.

“Damn it!” Emile cursed. “Time to run Six!”

The warriors threw all caution out and started to run toward the spaceship as fast as possible while shooting at their aggressors. Unfortunately, the Covenant understood quickly their motives and tried to block the way to the spacecraft.

“DON’T LET THEM USE THE SHIP!” the same Sangheili shouted.

But despite all the aliens’ efforts, the two Spartans were too strong to be stopped: they charged at the Covenant blocking their route and broke down their blockade, allowing them to pass through and to the ship. Noble Six jumped on board and ran in the direction of the control panel to try figuring out how it worked. He was soon followed by Noble Four who stayed on deck to hold back the assailants.

“I’ll give you time to figure out the commands! But hurry up! I can’t hold them off forever!” Emile shouted over the angry voices of the Covenant and the racket of the battle.

He started to launch grenades at the swarm of Covenant trying to get on board, making them fall off the ship. Meanwhile, Six was trying different buttons randomly. There were indications saying what they did written on them, but as he couldn’t read the aliens’ idiom, it wasn’t helping him at all.  
Suddenly, an explosion shook the walls of the spacecraft, making the Spartan lurch forward and fall on the control panel, pressing multiple buttons at the same time.

“Fuck!” Emile swore. “I think they damaged the ship!”

It wasn’t good. They might be unable to fly. That would be their doom. However, all hope wasn’t lost as Six's fall seemed to have turned on the spaceship. Numerous lights had appeared on the control panel, flashing repeatedly.

‘I can do this!’ Noble Six thought with renewed vigor.

Now that it was powered on, it would be easier to control the spacecraft and fly off. He took place on the driver’s sit and stared at the commands: a weird looking steering wheel was in front of him, accompanied with different levers.

‘Doesn’t seem too different from our own system.’ he thought.

Another explosion shook the ship. They didn’t have much time. Six pulled the lever on his right. It made the spacecraft levitate a bit.

‘Okay. That's a good start.’ he thought.

Next, he took the wheel in his hands and tried to turn it a little. The Spartan noticed that it was able to move not solely on the right and on the left, but also forward and backward, making the ship move accordingly. Seems like it wasn’t that complicated after all. B312 stirred the spaceship and flew off, leaving the Covenant behind them.  
Emile joined him at the front of the ship:

“Seems like we managed to get away. But the worst is yet to come.”

“Yeah.” Six answered. “I know.”

The vessel reached space some time afterward. A Covenant fleet was stationed all around the planet, watching it vigilantly as well as its surroundings. The Covenant had been coming in numbers since the Pillar of Autumn flew off, the planet now theirs. The Spartans approached the fleet slowly, trying to make themselves appear as inconspicuous as possible. A single error could be fatal. Their plan was to place their spaceship beneath a bigger one to hide enough time to jump into slipspace. Luckily, there were plenty to choose from. But it also meant more plasma cannons turned their way when the time would come.  
Noble Six placed their ship beneath a cruiser (how many did the Covenant have exactly???) and started looking for the slipspace command as he hadn’t had time to find it previously. Meanwhile, Emile was watching out for any hostile sign coming from the Covenant. After a while going through the commands, Six finally found the lever that permitted to jump and a blue portal formed itself in front of the spacecraft, which started to glow as its shields powered on.

All was silent for exactly three seconds before they received a communication from a cruiser nearby, likely asking them what the heck they were doing and ordering to cancel their jump, though the Spartans couldn’t understand a word and therefore, couldn’t answer without being discovered right away.  
Their ship started moving forward slowly into the portal. As they kept silent, they received another transmission, sounding more urgent this time around.  
The Covenant, still not receiving a response after their second call, decided that if the small ship wasn’t intending to cooperate, it would become an enemy and, therefore, would be brought down. Sending a warning saying such, they locked their cannons on the suspicious ship to emphasize their point.

“Oh oh...” Emile said. “Looks like the aliens are starting to get serious. Six, how much time’s left until the slip?”

“About twenty seconds.”

A beam grazed the ship’s hull. Probably the Covenant’s last warning. 

“Well, I’m not sure they’re going to let us have that much time...”

“Ten seconds left.” Six informed.

Suddenly, a huge explosion shook the whole spacecraft, making the Spartans fall down. Alarms began going all out everywhere on the ship. The humans struggled to stand up as the vessel was still lurching. The spaceship was badly touched, though not badly enough as to not be able to finish the jump as it slipped into slipspace not three seconds later, leaving behind Reach and the Covenant fleet once and for all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, what do you think so far? Any advice to improve myself? Do you have anything you would like to see in future chapters? Please let me know in the comments!


	2. Lost

It would be a euphemism to say the trip did not go very smoothly.

The Spartans had thought they would have been safe once they jumped, that they would have been able to rest a little, but that was not taking into full account the ship’s state. The Covenant had inflicted heavy damage to the spaceship, making it unable to fly straight.  
Noble Six was striving to maintain the vessel on its course but it was difficult: he was constantly fighting not to be expelled off his seat as the ship was wobbling one way or another and the commands, not helpful at all, weren’t responding underneath his fingers. Emile was not fairing much better, if not worse: he kept crashing into the walls as well as falling over and was unable to do anything besides holding tight onto something until it was over. But luckily for them, it was not long until they made it out of slipspace.

As the spacecraft exited slipspace through another blue portal, both Spartans sighed in relief: finally, some silence after the continuous racket made by all the ship’s vibrations. The fact that they managed to stay alive and not being crushed due to the pressure exercised on the ship during the trip was also a significant source of relief. But their relief was short lived as the alarms started blaring once again, startling both Spartans.

“Fuckin’ alarms.” Emile swore. “Six!” he called while approaching the driver’s cabin, “What does the command board say about the damages done to the ship?”

Six looked at the ship’s layout displayed on the board. Damaged zones were coloured in yellow, orange or red depending on the damages’ gravity and an alert message was flashing repeatedly on the screen. It wasn’t too difficult to assess which part was what:

“The ship’s hull received some damages when the Covenant shot at us but they’re rather minor in comparison to other damages the spacecraft received during the slip: the pressure has disabled our shields and the motors are dysfunctional. We were lucky to even make it out of the slipstream.”

“I see... Is the engine well enough to move the spacecraft?”

“I don’t really know... But I can try.”

“Okay, let’s do that.”

Spartan-B312 readied the commands and tried to make the ship move forward.  
Key word being ‘tried’.  
As soon as he pushed the wheel forward, the motor short-circuited and the ship’s security protocol activated itself in response, making all the machines unusable in an instant and therefore immobilizing the whole ship.

“Seems like we have our answer.” Noble Four noted wryly. “Is there anything able to do something on this ship or are we totally screwed?” he said a bit angrily. They hadn’t made all this way to die in the middle of nowhere because their ship was dysfunctional.

‘There must be something somewhere that still works!’ he thought.

Six ran a quick check up of the machines:

“The only devices still working are the lights and the radio as they seem to have backup generators for this type of situation. They’re the only ones though. The heater had one too but it was damaged by the Covenant.” he reported.

Emile took a few seconds to register all the information.

“Looks like our only option is to send an ask for help and wait... It’s not really an ideal situation, but we don’t really have a choice. I’ll let you send the message, I’ll go in the back to see how much supplies we have. Join me when you’re finished.” Emile ordered to which Noble Six answered with a nod, both Spartans getting to work just after.

It took an hour for the soldiers to finish their tasks. Six had tried contacting the UNSC and potential nearby colonies for help, without success. After a few unsuccessful tries, he had resigned himself to solely emit a broad transmission, hoping that whoever received it would be a friendly. Meanwhile, Emile had made a list of all the available supplies: they had food and water for at least a week before they would run out of provisions. They would have to ration them carefully as they didn’t know how much time they would have to wait. They had also arranged themselves a corner for sleep.

Now they just had to wait.

And wait, they did. The first few days were mostly silent. Both Spartans were not talkative by nature and not very close to each other either, as it had only been a few weeks since Six joined Noble team, and it was showing through the lack of conversations between them. They mostly occupied themselves with their own thoughts. Most of them were revolving around two subjects: the first one was what they would do once they would be found, especially in the case they were found by Covenant or if they were not found at all, though the last one was not really something they wanted to consider; the second one was the fate of their teammates on Reach. Even though they appeared more emotionally detached than the average human, both Spartans were feeling the loss of the other members of Noble team heavily.

What had been at first professionalism and indifference had later evolved in a sort of weird mixture of comradeship and friendship.  
In Emile’s case, his relationship with them was born from years of fighting side by side, learning slowly but surely how to appreciate each other.  
For Noble Six, it was pretty much the same. Yes, he had not been fighting with Noble team for as long as Emile, but he had still managed to forge bonds with them over the missions they went on together. He hadn’t been this close to other people since his childhood, even if they hadn’t been close enough to openly call each other ‘friends’. Jorge’s loss, in particular, was affecting him the most. He would remember his sacrifice for the rest of his life.

The silence was broken on the fifth day: Noble Six and Noble Four were facing each other while sitting on the ground with their backs against opposite walls, both clearly bored, when a thought crossed Emile’s mind:

“This situation reminds of when I was a kid...” he murmured absentmindedly, watching the ceiling with his head leaning against the wall behind him.

This drew the attention of Noble Six who raised his head in Noble Four’s direction.

“Oh, it’s nothing.” Emile replied to Six’s silent question. “It’s just that I’ve been in a similar situation when I was a kid. It was just after the glassing of Eridanus II, my planet of birth. Me and two hundreds other people were fleeing from the Covenant who had attacked our planet in a small spacecraft, but nobody knew how to navigate it, so we drifted into space for weeks.” he explained.

Noble Six remained silent, seemingly waiting for more details, but not pressing the other Spartan if he didn’t want to go further. Emile, seeing this, decided to open himself. It wasn’t something he did often, if at all, but seeing it was Six and they didn’t have anything else to do, he complied to the request.

“It was the worst experience of my life: the ship was too small for two hundreds people, so we were constantly stuck to each other and, therefore, didn’t have any privacy at all. We didn’t have much provisions either. Before long, people started to die because of malnourishment or because of diseases that spread quickly due to the poor hygiene we had. I really thought it was gonna be the end for me at that time. It was the most scared I’ve ever been in my whole life. Everybody was dying around me and it was really hard not to loose hope. The only thing keeping me from giving up was my wish to avenge my brother.”

“Your brother?”

“Yeah. He’s the one who took care of me after our parents were killed by Insurrectionists.”

“You didn’t wish to avenge them?”

“Well, no. I was very young when they died so I don’t remember them whatsoever. I didn’t and still don’t have any feelings for them. They’ve just never been part of my life. So I never had any reason to avenge them.” he explained. “But my brother, on the contrary, was everything to me. We were always together, even in tough situations. But... He died sacrificing himself on Eridanus II so I could escape. He let me have the last ‘seat’, if we can call it like this, on the ship and bought us time to escape.” he recounted. “Kinda like Noble team...” he finally added with a painful voice.

The two Spartans remained silent a few seconds to honor the memories of their fallen comrades as well as Emile’s brother’s.

“What happened next?” Six ultimately asked.

“Well, we were finally found by the UNSC after a month. By then, two thirds of the population on the ship had succumbed and we were on the verge of suffering the same fate. We had used all our food days ago and people were fighting over whatever bit of water still remained. People had been _killed_ for it.” Noble Four continued. “Thankfully, the UNSC found us before everybody died. I’ll always remember the day we finally heard a voice on the radio. There was total silence afterward, everybody was taking in the news. And then, the whole ship exploded of joy, people that were fighting each other not two minutes ago were now hugging each other with tears in their eyes. It seemed like a dream at that time...”

Six could perceive the smile on Emile’s face through the tone of his voice.

“Next, the UNSC took everybody on their ship and dropped them on another planet so they could start a new life there. But as I was still a child, and an orphan at that, they chose not to send me with them. Instead, they sent me to Alpha Company so I could be part of the Spartan-III Program alongside other orphans like me. What followed were years of training, but you already know all of that, don’t you?”

Spartan-B312 nodded. He had followed the same training in Beta Company himself.

“What about you?” Emile asked. “How did you become part of the Spartan-III Program? I know we were all orphans when we joined but that’s about all I know about you...”

Six looked at the ceiling, recollecting his memories. It had been awhile since he had had time to remember the past.

“I can’t remember well what my life was like before I entered the program, but what I’m sure of is that my parents were killed by the Covenant when I was young and that I found myself living on the streets because of it.” he started slowly. “I know I stayed alone for a long time afterward, trying to survive as well as I could, until I met a girl that was living on the streets like me. We became friends and we started helping each other a lot during the following months. It was the most happy I’ve ever been.” he recounted with a smile on his face, good memories resurfacing, as blurry as they were.

But his smile wavered as he knew what was coming next.

“This situation lasted a while, until one day she left without saying anything. I didn’t think anything of it at first, we often had to leave to find food and other things. But after a few hours, she still hadn’t come back. So I started searching for her but it was as if she had completely vanished off this world. It took me a week to finally find trace of her. But… What I found was... not quite what I was hoping for...”

He paused. Buried feelings inside of him were resurfacing painfully in his memory.

“I…” he started, throat tight. “I found her with her throat _sliced open_ in the middle of a dark alley-way. Her already rotting corpse had been thrown like a piece of garbage on a pile of junk!”

Emile was a bit surprised to hear venom in the usually calm voice of his partner. But he couldn’t blame him. Every Spartan had a traumatic past, but some more than others, and Noble Six and himself were part of those.

“I was devastated that day.” Six continued. “I was so shocked I didn’t even have the strength in me to cry. I just… stood there for hours, taking in what had happened...”

He sighed. These memories were still hurting. Nevertheless, he went on his story.

“The following months are a total blur, I don’t really remember what happened... My take is that I lost the will to live but didn’t have the courage to kill myself, so I started wandering mindlessly in the area, until the UNSC finally found me and integrated me to the Spartan-III Program in Beta Company and I started training, giving me something else to think about and a new goal in my life.” he concluded.

Afterward, the Spartans remained quiet a few minutes, reflecting on their lives. What they had gone through was horrible, but they knew words of compassion were useless. So they stayed silent.

“You know, I can’t even remember that girl’s name or face.” Six confessed. “But I can still remember how close we were.”

“Me too. I’ve forgotten what my brother looked like or sounded like, but the feelings I felt when he died are still present.”

Silence returned between them. The Spartans were sharing a rare moment of quiet understanding toward each other. Feelings usually hidden to the outer world were coming out in the open without restraint, knowing they would be accepted and cherished by the other.

“Do you think Jun’s still alive?” Six asked with a weak voice, wrapping his arms around his legs and putting his head on his knees.

“I don’t know… I hope so.” Emile answered truthfully. “I know he’s resourceful and all, but the other Nobles were too, and look where it led them… I can’t be sure of anything anymore…” he admitted with a low voice, holding his forehead in one hand with his elbow resting on one knee, looking at the floor in discouragement.

They were truly fucked, he thought. All this time he had showed a brave facade, using humor to distract himself, but the reality of what had happened was catching up to him in this moment of insecurity. And it was harsh. Harsher than expected.

His train of thoughts was cut off suddenly when the ship shook violently, forcing the Spartans to hold on to something and focus on identifying the threat.

“What the hell!?” Emile swore angrily.

He hated being taken by surprise. He certainly did not hope it was more Covenant; he had had his dose already back on Reach.  
Both Spartans stood up and ran to the windows to identify what was happening. When they looked outside, what they saw was definitely not what they were expecting. Instead of a Covenant vessel firing on them, a weird structure with an insect-like shape was holding their ship in its ‘claws’. The whole thing seemed to be made of junk, scraps of metal protruding here and there. But most notably, the thing was _huge_. It was bigger than any ship the two soldiers had ever had the chance to see in their lives. It was even bigger than the Covenant cruiser they had destroyed. In comparison, their stolen ship’s size was derisory.

The two Spartans stood at the window in awe. They had never seen anything like this. But they couldn’t deny being a little frightened as well. This vessel could easily crush them if the one at its commands wanted to do so. Hopefully it would be a friendly, though the Spartans were very skeptical of this hypothesis as they had never heard anything about this spacecraft before. And something like this couldn’t go unnoticed.

Their ship jolted once more. The legs of the huge vessel had began moving them toward its belly where a garage was opening itself slowly to receive them. As they kept approaching more and more, the Spartans readied themselves to an eventual confrontation with an unknown enemy.  
It was a few moments later that their spacecraft finally arrived in the garage. As the ship was in the process of landing, the Spartans opened their door forcefully and pointed their weapons at whoever, or whatever, was outside.

“Nobody moves! We’re armed!” Emile shouted in warning.

The Spartans could perceive shapes through the cloud of dust from their landing. As it finally abated, the soldiers lowered their weapons.

Humans.  
They had been found by humans.

Relief ran through their bodies at the sight. Finally, they could go back home and, hopefully, see Jun once again.  
An old woman dressed as a mechanic came out of the crowd and walked their way.

“Sorry about the rough handling. We had to make sure it was not a trap of the Covies.” the woman said with a stick between her teeth. “It’s rather unusual to see Spartans in the area.” she continued. “Do you mind telling me what you two are doing on a Covenant ship of all things?” she asked casually while crossing her arms on her chest.

“I’m sorry ma’am, this matter is confidential.” Emile answered. “Is there any commanding officer on this ship you could lead us to? We have an important report to make.”

“A commanding officer?”

“Yes.”

“There’s no commanding officer on this ship, young man.” the mechanic replied.

“What? That’s not possible, every UNSC ship has a commanding officer.” Emile retorted, to which the woman started laughing loudly.

“ _Every UNSC ship_? You’re not on an UNSC ship, young man.” the old woman replied with a grin.

Before Emile could ask further what the woman meant, he was stopped by Six’s hand on his shoulder.

“Look.” his comrade said, pointing at their interlocutor’s jacket with his other hand.

What he found at the other hand of his friend’s finger was not what he was expecting. It was something he had not seen since his childhood, but that he would always recognize. It was a badge. But not just any badge. It was _that_ badge.

“Ah, I see that you’re starting to understand.” the old woman commented.

Emile’s mind was drawing a blank. Of all the people that could have rescued the Spartans, why did it have to be _them_?

“You’re...” he began.

“Yes.” the woman answered. “But now that we’re all on the same page, let me do the introductions.”

She took some distance and opened her arms in flourish.

“Welcome on The Undying Roach, Spartans! My name is Brenda and this piece of art you’re actually standing on is my creation as well as the Insurrection’s HQ!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I'm not good at writing touching scenes like this. Please let me know what you think in the comment section!
> 
> See you next time!
> 
> (PS: Emile's story about his brother sacrificing himsef is actually true, though I added details of my own. It's also true that all the children in the Spartan-III Program were orphans.)


	3. The Insurrectionists

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's another chapter! 
> 
> Though I have to admit I'm not very satisfied on how it came out.
> 
> I wish you a good reading nonetheless!

The Spartans’ luck had to be damned.

They had fled from an enemy just to run into another. How ironic. Now they were as good as prisoners in the Insurrectionists’ hands, because as good as were the Spartans’ capacities, there was no way they would be able to escape from that ship in one piece: there were just too many dangerous people ready to kill them and they didn’t know where the shuttles were so they could steal one. And even if they did found one, they wouldn’t be able to evade the Undying Roach’s canons once in space. There was just nothing to do but bow when faced with such raw strength.  
Those were the thoughts that were running through the Spartans’ minds during the trip to see the Insurrection’s leaders. Brenda had explained that the Insurrection was in fact directed by an assembly that gathered the heads of each department of the ship. As such, there was no commanding officer.

When they finally arrived in front of the door to the congress, guards stopped them to ask Noble Four and Noble Six to leave their weapons there. Of course, the Spartans didn’t have much of a choice and they did as asked, though begrudgingly.

“Sorry guys, but we wouldn’t want you to kill our leaders on a whim, right?” the mechanic said, still as casual as before. “Not that it will change a great many things, you could still kill them with your bare hands anyway...” she added with a shrug and a smile on her face.

The Spartans responded nothing.  
Once all their weapons were discarded in a quite impressive pile next to the door, the Nobles were finally allowed entrance in the room. As they took one step in the room, they were greeted by a dozen heads turning their way and staring at them from a semicircle-shaped table.

“Welcome Spartans.” a woman in her mid-fifties said. “Thank you for agreeing to this meeting, though I think we all know it would have been unwise to turn down our proposition.”

“Enough pleasantries. What do you want with us?” Emile cut quite rudely while crossing his arms on his chest.

Discomfort and indignation ran through the people of the assembly. Clearly, they were as happy to be there as the Spartans.

“Right. Let’s get to the point.” the same woman complied. “We want to make a deal.”

“A deal?”

“Yes. We didn’t go out of our way to rescue you just to kill you, you know? Besides, we know trying to kill you would result in too much casualties on our side, though we don’t doubt for one second we would be able to kill you if we decided to do so. One word from us and you’re dead. So don’t try anything, okay?”

The Spartans remained silent.

“So, what’s the deal?” Emile finally asked.

“We want you to do some missions for us. Of course, none of them will be against the ONI or the UNSC, we know you would rather kill yourself than betray them, and besides, our fight with them is on hold during the war against the Covenant.”

“Then what do you want us to do?”

“We want you to help us recover outer colonies. The UNSC is too focused on protecting Earth to care about the planets on the borders of the human empire, and billions of people die everyday at the hands of the Covenants. This has to change, and getting help from Spartans could make possible what we hadn’t even considered before because of the too high risks it would entail.”

“And what do we get in exchange?”

“For one, you stay alive. Two, we can repair your ship so you can go wherever you want once you’ve done your part of the deal.”

“Don’t you fear we reveal your existence to the UNSC?”

“Not really. They would have known one day or another either way, and it’s not like they have the time nor the resources to try anything against us.”

“I see…” Emile said, pensive.

“So, do you accept our proposal?”

Emile considered the offer carefully in his head. After a few seconds, he turned his head in Six’s direction to ask for his opinion, to which Six responded with a nod.

“Okay. We accept the deal.”

“Wonderful!” the woman exclaimed. “We’ll give you your first mission in a few days. For now, please follow Brenda who will lead you to your new quarters.”

Brenda, who had been watching the meeting silently this whole time, moved from her position against the wall to gesture the Spartans to the door:

“This way gentlemen!”

The Spartans followed suit and retrieved their weapons at the entrance. On their way to their new quarters, Brenda made a detour to the mess hall and the training rooms so the Spartans could go there by themselves afterward, all the while talking about the ‘magnificence’ of her creation enthusiastically. The flow of words coming from her mouth when speaking of her ship seemed to be unceasing, and as the Spartans had the habit of not talking when unnecessary, there was nobody to stop her. But all in all, she was very friendly, unlike the other Insurrectionists who were staring at them with venom in their eyes when they were passing. They couldn’t blame them though, it was because of Spartans like them that many Insurrectionists had died. Thankfully, they didn’t seem to know who Six was nor what he had done in the past. Otherwise they would have probably been less welcoming, to not say utterly aggressive toward them. B312 didn’t know if the Insurrection’s leaders knew. Maybe if they had known they wouldn’t have offered to make a deal and would have just killed them. Or maybe not. Who knows? It was probably best not to mention it in any case, but Six resolved to be honest with the Insurrectionists if they happened to ask him about it. He owed them that much for having rescued them when they could have let him and Noble Four die in the middle of space.

His musing was interrupted when they finally arrived in front of the door leading to their new quarters.

“This is my stop gentlemen!” Brenda exclaimed. “There should be all you need in your quarters but don’t hesitate to ask me if you need anything! I’ll be in the garage.”

The Spartans nodded.

“Until next time then! Bye!” she waved while turning to go back the way they came.

As she disappeared at the hallway’s other end, the Spartans entered their room. It was furnished sparsely: there were two bunks in one corner and a wardrobe in another. Apart from that, there was just a door opening on a small bathroom. It was not the best but the Spartans had been used to worse, so they put down their stuff without a word and, as it was late already, settled in their bunks. But as soon as they laid down, they couldn't help but note with annoyance that they were in fact too big for their beds: their feet were sticking out at the bed’s end and their bodies were threatening to fall off at each of their movements.

“Great. Just great.” Six heard Emile mutter from above him.

At least they had mattresses now. It had not been the case when they were lost in space.  
The next fifteen minutes or so were passed in silence. Not that the Spartans were sleeping, they had too much going on in their heads after the last few hours. To think the Insurrectionists among all would rescue them and offer to make a deal was unexpected to say the least and what it implied needed to be considered carefully by the Spartans.  
It was Emile who broke the silence:

“Hey, Six.” he called quietly. “I… I wanted to say… Thank you for listening to me earlier. It’s not often I’m able to confess what’s on my chest and… I realize that I needed it more than I thought. So… Thanks. For opening up to me too. I know it’s not easy.”

Six remained silent.  
Their conversation had alleviated him too. He had honestly never told his past to anyone beside Emile. It had been too painful at first and he had focused on his training to forget. It was part of why he had been this good compared to the other children and was designated as a ‘Cat 2’ and therefore assigned to a different unit.  
Later, it had been because of the lack of person in his entourage he could trust enough to tell. He had been utterly alone during his time as an assassin working for the ONI: most of his missions were solo and it had happened more than once that they lasted weeks or months. The only contacts he had had were with his superiors and the occasional marines he worked with, not really the kind of persons he was willing to talk to. His superiors probably knew his past already anyway, and they were not really the type to give comfort to anybody.  
So yes, it had been freeing to finally talk to someone he knew he could count on.

As the silence was drawing out, Emile was ready to give up receiving an answer when Six finally talked:

“… Thank you for listening to me too.”

Emile smiled at that. He had not been wrong to open up to Six.

“You’re welcome, Six.” he responded. “G’ night.”

As usual, silence met his words. But he didn’t mind, it was just how Six was.  
Both Spartans fell asleep shortly after.

*****

The next few days were spent with the Spartans staying close to each other.  
Indeed, they favored being together for two reasons: first to keep company to each other and also in the case some bold Insurrectionists wanted to try something against them, not that they really feared for their lives, but they didn’t want to take any unnecessary risk. They were still on enemy territory after all, and it was reassuring to be with someone you knew when you were surrounded by the unknown.

Thankfully, none had tried anything yet. The Spartans were mostly left alone by themselves, the Insurrectionists wanting to be as far from them as possible. It had in fact created some quite hilarious situations. Once, in the mess hall, a sort of perimeter had been created around the Spartans who were quietly eating their meal, in which no rebel wanted to settle down to eat. But as it was the hour where everybody came to eat all at once, the Insurrectionists soon had no choice but to approach awkwardly the soldiers of the UNSC or to eat somewhere else because of the lack of place. It had been rather funny to see the dilemma occur on their faces.  
People also tended to interrupt their conversations when the Spartans entered the room and to speak in hushed tones between themselves while eyeing them suspiciously.

But, while it had been funny at first, it had soon became quite tiresome, so the Spartans decided to stay in their quarters or in the training rooms as much as possible. They didn’t really like being the center of attention and they also didn’t want to be a bother for the Insurrectionists, as unwelcoming as they were toward them.

But their isolation met an end one day as they were in the training rooms. They had decided to go there to let off some steam after being inactive for so long. They were working on their aim on targets when rebels stepped in the room.

“Hey! Look who’s there! That’s the UNSC’s dogs! Though I guess we could say they’re not anymore since they’ve been thrown away in the middle of space!” one of them said purposely loud to his comrades.

His friends laughed at that.

“Poor puppies…” another continued. “Still chasing after their master even after he abandoned them like pieces of garbage…”

The Spartans stayed silent.  
It was no use getting angry against people like that. It was better to just ignore them until they grew bored. But the problem was that they didn’t grew bored. Even after half an hour, the Insurrectionists kept mocking them. It was as if they were participating in a contest of who could say the best degrading comment against the Spartans.  
After a moment, Emile just couldn’t take it anymore. He raised from his crouch at the target practice stand and approached the group of rebels slowly. As he stood threateningly before them with all his height, the Insurrectionists finally shut their mouth.

“What?” one said. “You’ve got a problem?”

“Would you mind shutting _the fuck up_ please?” Emile asked pleasantly while tilting his head slightly and cracking his knuckles. “My mate here and myself would like to train in peace.”

The group recoiled a bit at these words. The Spartan was quite intimidating. But one of the rebels put himself together and took a step forward to confront the huge man.

“Or what? You’re gonna punch us? You can’t do anything! Don’t forget that you’re on our ship and that therefore you must do as we say, and I’m not sure the deal you made with the Council will withstand if you threaten any of us.”

“You’re right, I can’t punch you outright in the face.” Noble Four admitted. “But nobody’s gonna say anything if I beat you in a training match, right?”

“And what makes you so sure that I will accept this match against you? I know there’s no way I can beat a Spartan.”

“You can bring your friends with you.” Emile offered. “All of you against us. Doesn’t seem impossible, right? Or are you too much of a coward to accept the challenge?”

“Hmm… But what do we gain if we can beat you?”

“You’ll be able to brag before everyone that you’ve beaten not one, but two Spartans. If you win that is. But if we win, you’ll stop disturbing us altogether. Do we have a deal?”

“Doesn’t sound bad.” the rebel contemplated. “Okay, we have a deal. But you must have only one knife at your disposition while we can have all the equipment we want, okay?”

“Yeah, whatever. Now let’s go.”

The group of Insurrectionists as well as the two Spartans made their way toward the combat simulation room. As they walked, they drew the attention of other Insurrectionists that started following them out of curiosity. By the time they arrived at the training ground, a small crowd had gathered behind them. As the group entered the room, the crowd sat on the benches outside. From there, they would be able to watch whatever was going to happen in the room by the way of big screens attached to the wall.  
After choosing the configuration of the room as well as their equipment, the group started the simulation.  
The principle of the match was simple: each team started from one side of the field and had to annihilate the other one. Of course, as it was a simulation, the weapons were not real and could not deal real damage, so the participants needed to only touch the adversary directly or by the way of weapons somewhere deemed lethal to eliminate them. In other words, one hit and you were out. It could go really quickly.  
As a robot voice was announcing the settings of the match, the decor formed itself around them, creating obstacles and hiding places. The two teams took position and waited the end of the countdown with trepidation.

“… THREE, TWO, ONE, START.”

The Spartans took off at full speed toward the Insurrectionists. They had to be quick so the rebels would not be able to hit them with their guns and other long range weapons. They only had one knife each after all, so it meant they had to get close of their opponents to eliminate them.  
Thirty seconds in the game and they had made good progress: their strategy of moving quickly and using their surroundings to cover themselves was proving to be quite effective. The Insurrectionists, noticing they were losing ground, decided to spice things up. One of them changed weapon: instead of his rifle the rebel took out a cannon and loaded it heavily. Now he didn’t have to aim with too much precision to have a chance of hitting the Spartans.

‘Shit!’ both Spartans thought at the view.

The Insurrectionist aimed at their general direction and fired. Elements of the decor flew everywhere at the projectile’s impact, baring the view. They were now able to see the Spartans who had ducked out of the way of the missile at the last second.

“There they are!” a renegade shouted. “Everyone fire!”

All the Insurrectionists fired at the same time. The Spartans tried to run to cover as fast as possible but it was not easy at all as the rebel with the cannon kept pulverizing their hiding places. However, the Spartans did not give up and pushed forward until they were close enough for Six to throw his knife at the enemy to stop him from firing his cannon. The knife spiraled into the air and planted itself in the Insurrectionist’s chest, ‘killing’ him on the spot and making him drop his barrel on the ground.

‘One problem solved.’ B312 thought.

He had lost his only knife though. But it was not really a problem, he knew how to fight weaponless. The Spartans resumed their previous strategy and continued moving forward. They soon arrived in the Insurrectionists’ zone and split up to cover more ground and disable the rebels quickly.  
The Nobles were moving with efficiency. The Insurrectionists had lost sight of them and were starting to panic, though it was understandable as they were all isolated from one another and were therefore more vulnerable.  
Six circled one of the rebels carefully by hiding behind crates and approached the man from behind silently. The rebel didn’t notice a thing until the Spartan was closing a hand around his throat, signing his demise instantly. Then again, Six’s stealth skills were among the best, he had had all the time to perfect them during his time as an assassin after all.  
After the Insurrectionist’s body fell on the ground, Noble Six resumed his hunt as silently as before. As he kept moving like a ghost between different Insurrectionists and ‘killing’ them, he could hear screams coming from around him.

‘Seems like Four is having fun.’ he thought with a chuckle.

He couldn’t deny he was having fun too though. It had been a long time since he had had the occasion to do this without worrying about his survival. Doing it with a friend was also a plus. He realized then that it was probably the first time ever he was training with someone he could call ‘friend’. But it was a nice change.

‘… God, I’ve truly been alone all my life, haven’t I?’ he sighed internally from the top of a big crate, out of view of anybody who wasn’t looking up.

The Spartan resumed his mission, there were still a few Insurrectionists to get rid of. As the Nobles were disabling one rebel after another, they gradually closed on the enemy leader, both arriving before him at the same time.

“Oh, hey Six!” Emile greeted casually. “Have you finished the cleaning on your side?”

“Yes.” Noble Six responded with a nod.

“Good.” his teammate praised. “Seems like you’re the last one!” he addressed the frightened Insurrectionist cornered against a wall.

It was actually the man he had challenged before. Though he wasn’t so full of himself now.  
The skull-faced Spartan advanced threateningly toward the relatively small man.

“Now I can beat you all I want…” Emile growled.

As Noble team’s fourth member started punching the poor man, Six shrugged playfully on the side. He personally had nothing against the rebels, except that they were a bit annoying, but he couldn’t deny that he was finding his friend’s antics quite funny. But he was happy to note that Emile was enjoying himself instead of mourning their lost teammates.  
After a thorough beating on the Insurrectionist, the robot voiced finally announced the end of the match. Emile stretched with a sigh of contempt. It felt good to be able to let off some steam after days of inactivity. As the Spartans exited the room, they noticed that their spectators were watching them wearily. It wasn’t really a surprise though. They had demonstrated their abilities quite well during the simulation. The inhabitants of the Undying Roach had to feel insecure with the Spartans in their close vicinity.  
But the Spartans’ attention was soon diverted when Brenda approached them.

“Hi lads! I’ve got a message for you from the Council.” she greeted. “You have to go meet them so they can brief you on your first mission.”

“Aha! Finally!” Emile exclaimed. “When do we have to meet them?”

“Well, as soon as possible.”

“Okay. Let’s go Six! The sooner we get this sorted, the sooner we get to go home!”

Six gave his usual nod in response.

“See ya later in the hangar!” Brenda waved while going toward said hangar.

“Yeah.” Emile answered.

On these last words, both Spartans departed toward the meeting room.


End file.
